Baylor blasts Georgia to win series

Bears win fourth consecutive series dating to 2010 season

ATHENS, Ga. -- Baylor scored nine runs in the third inning and cruised to a 19-12 win against Georgia on Sunday afternoon at Foley Field. With the win, the 16th-ranked Bears won their fourth consecutive series dating to the 2010 season.

Baylor (4-3) starting pitcher Trent Blank earned the win after allowing two runs on four hits in 5.0 innings. The Bears had 21 hits from 11 different batters, including eight who had multi-hit games and six who drove in at least two runs.

Joey Hainsfurther got the scoring started when his first-inning double drove in Logan Vick to spot Blank a 1-0 lead before he took the mound. Blank allowed a single to the first batter he faced, then retired 10 in a row and 14 of 15 before running into his first trouble with two outs in the fifth.

The Bears nine-run third was their highest-scoring inning since April 7, 2009. Baylor got started with a back-to-back bunts. Steve DalPorto's bunt bounced twice off of home plate and was fumbled by Georgia catcher Joey Delmonico, and Brooks Pinckard followed with a bunt single. Both runners moved into scoring position when Jonathan Hester made an errant throw trying to get Pinckard at first.

Vick followed with a sacrifice fly, Max Muncy and Landis Ware had two-run singles and Landis Ware made it 7-0 with a RBI single. DalPorto then drew a walk, Pinckard drove in two more with a single and Vick knocked his second sacrifice fly of the inning, giving Baylor a 10-0 lead. The Bears added on two more runs in the fourth on Ware's two-run double.

Wes Mercurio came on as a pinch hitter for his first plate appearance of the season and drilled the first pitch he saw off the scoreboard beyond the right-field wall for a three-run homer to extend the Bears' lead to 15-0 in the fifth.

Mercurio doubled and scored later in the game, giving him his first-ever multi-hit game. Lawton Langford came off the bench and got his first collegiate hits going 2-for-3 with two runs and one RBI, and Nate Goodwin made his Baylor debut and had a ninth-inning RBI single.

Pinckard went 3-for-7 with three RBI and his fifth stolen base in the series. Vick went 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBI. He drove in a run in all three plate appearances in which he made an out. Mercurio and Ware also had three RBI apiece for the Bears.

Blank got two quick outs in the fifth, but after hitting a batter he gave up a RBI double to Peter Verdin and a RBI single to Levi Hyams to cut Baylor's lead to 15-2. Georgia kept chipping away, scoring in each of the last five innings, including five in the ninth, but Baylor's lead proved insurmountable. Hyams finished the day 5-for-6 at the plate.

Josh Turley came out of the bullpen to get the last two outs and send the Bears home with a series win. Baylor was a perfect 13-for-13 on attempted steals in the series, and the Bears are now 18-for-19 stealing bases on the season.